Winston Report: “We’ve Been Here Before. We’re Going To Bounce Back”

For the first time since 1987, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick and selected former Florida State Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston. The area is abuzz with excitement for the Bucs news quarterback, one the fans and the organization hope becomes a franchise quarterback, and can lead the Buccaneers back to the playoffs for the first time since Jon Gruden roamed the sidelines at Raymond James Stadium.

PewterReport.com has chronicled Winston’s practice reports throughout training camp and the preseason, and now breaks down his performances in the regular season.

Winston’s First Drive – Colts 3, Bucs 0
Winston’s first pass was a 16-yard strike to Mike Evans for a first down on second-and-9 out to the 50-yard line. Winston threw an incompletion before tossing a 15-yard pass to Vincent Jackson to convert a third-and-11 down to the Indianapolis 36. On third-and-6 from the Colts’ 20, Winston’s pass to Evans in the end zone was incomplete. That set up a 38-yard field goal by Connor Barth to tie the game at 3-3.Winston was 2-of-4 for 31 yards

Winston’s Second Drive – Colts 6, Bucs 3
Winston’s pass to Vincent Jackson on first down was incomplete, but Winston scrambled and hit Jackson for a gain of 20 yards on third-and-7 from the Tampa Bay 23. On third-and-6, Winston hits Evans for a gain of 17 yards down to the Indianapolis 34. On second down, Winston scrambled left and found Jackson for a gain of 22 yards down to the Indianapolis 14-yard line. Winston then hit Charles Sims with a gain of seven yards down to the Indianapolis 9. After a false start moved the Bucs back five yards, Winston hit Cameron Brate with an 11-yard gain to pick up a first down. On third-and-goal from the 12, Winston’s pass to Humphries was incomplete.Winston was 5-of-9 for 75 yards

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Getty Images

Winston’s Third Drive – Bucs 6, Colts 6
Winston had an incompletion, but an offensive pass interference penalty on Evans moved the Bucs back 10 yards to their own 14-yard line, so the throw didn’t count. On the next play, Martin ripped off a 56-yard run down to the Indianapolis 30. Winston was sacked by linebacker D’Qwell Jackson for a loss of zero on a scramble, which set up third-and-4. Evans converted it with a 4-yard catch. On the next play, Winston hit tight end Cameron Brate for a 20-yard touchdown. Barth missed the extra point and the Bucs’ lead was 12-6.Winston was 2-of-2 for 24 yards and a TD and was sacked once

Winston’s Fourth Drive – Bucs 12, Colts 6
Winston’s pass on first-and-20 was incomplete to Jackson. His screen pass to Martin on the next play gained just one yard. On third-and-19, Winston’s pass to Humphries gained nine yards and the Bucs had to punt for the first time in the game.Winston was 2-of-3 for 10 yards

Winston’s Fifth Drive – Bucs 12, Colts 9
Winston was sacked for a loss of 10 yards on second down. On third-and-18 from the Tampa Bay 12, Winston’s screen pass to Martin was incomplete and the Bucs had to punt for the second time in the game.Winston was 0-of-1 and was sacked once

Winston’s Sixth Drive – Colts 16, Bucs 12
Winston threw a 12-yard strike to Evans on first down. After a run by Sims for no gain, Winston hit Evans with a 15-yard pass across the middle to the Tampa Bay 47. On second-and-6 from the Indianapolis 49, Winston rushed for a gain of 9 yards. After an incomplete pass, Winston scrambled for a 4-yard gain. On third-and-6, Winston’s touchdown pass to Evans was dropped. That resulted in a missed field goal by Barth.Winston was 2-of-4 for 27 yards with two carries for 13 yards

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Getty Images

Winston’s Seventh Drive – Colts 19, Bucs 12
Winston hit Jackson with a gain of 21 yards on first down, but was sacked on back-to-back plays on second and third down to force a punt.Winston was 1-of-1 for 21 yards and was sacked twice

Winston’s Eighth Drive – Colts 25, Bucs 12
Winston’s first pass on the drive to Evans was overthrown. On second-and-10 he hit Brate with a 5-yard gain and then found him again with an 8-yard gain for a first down. Winston was sacked, but a personal foul gave the Bucs a first down. Winston then dashed for a first down on a 15-yard run. Winston hit Humphries with a gain of 11 yards before his pass to Luke Stocker was incomplete. On second-and-10 from the Indianapolis 36, Winston hit Brate for a gain of nine yards to set up third-and-1. On fourth-and-1, Winston’s pass to Brate was broken up and it was a turnover on downs.Winston was 4-of-6 for 33 yards with a 15-yard run and was sacked once

Winston’s Ninth Drive – Colts 25, Bucs 12
Winston’s bomb to Evans was just overthrown. It could have been a touchdown. On his next play, Winston overthrew Jackson and the pass was picked by Colts safety Dwight Lowery.Winston was 0-of-2 with one interception

Winston’s Ninth Drive – Colts 25, Bucs 12
With less than minute remaining, Winston threw a 16-yard pass to Sims, followed by another 8-yard pass to Sims as time expired.Winston was 2-of-2 with 24 yards

After a good first half in which the Buccaneers had a 12-6 lead, Winston and the offense fell apart in the second half and was shut out while the Colts scored 19 points to claim victory.

“To beat a good football team you have to play good football,” Bucs head coach Lovie Smith said. “We didn’t play good football today. We didn’t play as well as we needed to. They played better than we did today. We hung in there, but they were the better football team today.

“Passing game-wise we were just off today. We had opportunities and we didn’t capitalize on them.”

Winston threw a 20-yard touchdown to Brate in the first half, but threw an interception in the second half and misfired on a couple of potential touchdown passes to Evans. After the game Winston admitted he was off.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston and WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Getty Images

“We just have to execute and make the plays when we need to make them that’s on me,” Winston said. “I underthrew Mike and then I overthrew him.

“As an offense, we have to execute – it doesn’t matter if we’re running or passing we have to execute.”

Winston, who scrambled three times for 27 yards against Indianapolis, was sacked a season-high five times by a Colts defense that came into the game with only 14 on the year. Center Joe Hawley and right guard Evan Smith, who was filling in for the injured Ali Marpet for a second straight week, were exceptionally bad in pass protection.

Despite being under pressure the entire game, Winston didn’t blame the offensive line for the lack of adequate protection.

“I have to get rid of the football,” Winston said.

Sunday’s game was a matchup of the league’s youngest quarterback, the 21-year old Winston, versus the oldest in the 40-year old Indianapolis signal caller Matt Hasselbeck. Winston lost that matchup and the game as Hasselbeck was 26-of-42 for 315 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

“He’s a good player, and if you’re 40 years old and still in the league – you’re a good player,” Smith said.

After the game, Winston remained confident and positive despite the Bucs falling to 5-6 and failing to take a step forward in the NFC Wild Card playoff race.

“It’s disappointing we lost, but not our situation,” Winston said. “We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve been here before. I talked to the fellas and I can’t stress this enough. The season isn’t over. We’ve got to keep playing.

“Everyone has days like this my job as the quarterback is to tell team to bounce back – not sit and sulk. We’re been here before, we’re going to bounce back.”

PewterReport.com Analysis: For Winston in Indianapolis it was a tale of two halves in the losing cause. Winston was solid in the first half, completing 9-of-15 passes for 130 yards and one touchdown, but was 11-of-21 for 115 yards with one interception in the second half. Like Smith said in his post-game press conference, Winston, who was under duress the entire game and sacked five times, was just off in the passing game – underthrowing and overthrowing receivers at times. He has to be more efficient throughout the game in order to help the Bucs put up more than 12 points, which was Tampa Bay’s third-lowest point production of the season.

Winston’s Final Stats: 20-of-36 for 245 yards with one touchdown, one interception and was sacked five times and rushed three times for 27 yards

About the author

Scott Reynolds is in his 22nd year of covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the vice president, publisher and senior Bucs beat writer for PewterReport.com. Author of the popular SR's Fab 5 column on Fridays, Reynolds oversees web development and forges marketing partnerships for PewterReport.com in addition to his editorial duties. A graduate of Kansas State University in 1995, Reynolds enjoys giving back to the community as the defensive line coach for his sons' Pop Warner team, the South Pasco Predators. Reynolds can be reached at: sr@pewterreport.com

23 Comments

Bucnut2

C+ is very generous. In the coming days i think we will learn that JW did not get the correct protection calls made and that much of the pressure was due to his lack of making the right calls. I think most rookies struggle in this area, you can’t claim to be a genius and then miss this stuff

Bucnut2

Hey Guys, I watched the game again to get and need to say that I was totally wrong about J. I reacted emotionally and was WAY too harsh on Jamies. My bad, sorry for polluting the site. Thanks everyone for calling me out.

Bucnut2

cgmaster27

You’re kidding right? You been saving this rant up for about 4 weeks now? How do you know it was bad calls at the line? Were you in the huddle? All I saw was guys getting blown by every play. A blown call is when a guy comes free so you must’ve been watching a different game than me.
But please stop with the trolling it’s boring at this point. I guess as bucs fans we’ll have to deal with people like you every week he has an off game.

plopes808

wnb0395

I was not a fan of the Winston selection at the beginning of the year but the kid has impressed me this year. He is on pace to have one of the best rookie years by a QB. How can you even blame this game on him? Poor play calling, penalties, and dropped passes is to blame (not to mention the refs). How do you have a RB that rushes for 90 yds the first half and only give him 2 carries the 2nd half. Gotta run the ball to keep the defense off balance and give your QB some time to throw.

grafikdetail

Horse

Winston wasn’t the problem today. I think towards the end of the game most of us knew he was going to throw an interception because he wanted to win and he’s wasn’t concerned about his stats; he’s a winner in my book. There’s no quit in him. Go Bucs!

grafikdetail

jongruden

Evans dropped a huge ball on the sidleine which would have set up a possible TD, line olayed like shit all around, Winston wasn’t the problem but he did miss on some throws I think a C+ is accurate. I have zero faith in our defense they can’t make a stop when you need one.

artpac

Our team wasn’t good enough to overcome mistakes/refs today. I hate blaming a game on the refs, and won’t do so today, but I did feel like our fairly mediocre defense did force 2 turnovers on that last colts scoring drive, 1 was taken away by a bad call, and 1 was not called a fumble. Great teams overcome these things, and we are not great. But would have like to see Jameis with a chance to tie.

artpac

Our team wasn’t good enough to overcome mistakes/refs today. I hate blaming a game on the refs, and won’t do so today, but I did feel like our fairly mediocre defense did force 2 turnovers on that last colts scoring drive, 1 was taken away by a bad call, and 1 was not called a fumble. Great teams overcome these things, and we are not great. But would have like to see Jameis with a chance to tie.

e

Ups and downs… Keep the focus on Winston. I thought he was okay. But, every game and every snap he can get is just going to make him that much better next year. The O-line disappeared this game. I’m still excited to see him exceed expectations at this point.

76Buc

AZ_BUC_FAN4LIFE

LOL@ BucNutta and and 76Buccaroo…..They have been MIA for awhile waiting for a bad game so they could post something. The O-line played bad. The defense, did not seem to adjust in the 2nd half to the Colts going to the quick dink and dunk style offense to get the ball out faster. Lovie needed to blitz more to add pressure, as well as have the corners up in press defense to disrupt the short routes. As for Winston, I think he played well with the amount of pressure they put on him. Evans missing key catches, puts the offense in a bad position, which makes they play calling more difficult than it needs to be.
I do not know if anyone noticed Kwon trying to fire up the defense in the 2nd half trying to get a stop, but that kid has that same fire as Winston. He was out there balling. This team is growing, so I expect some ups and downs. By next year, with a good draft. They should be real contenders.

jme0151

This defensive scheme is crap. Receivers run wide open constantly. No bump or reroute at the line. Were 10 yards off the receiver. No pass rush unless we blitz which we don’t do enough. Winston is OK. Hard to pass when you are laying on the ground or have the other team in your face all day!!

EastEndBoy

@jme0151 – I had the same thought about how awful it is to watch us just let teams play pitch and catch over the middle…but I thought back to our glory days and recall much of the same…the “bend but don’t break” defense that gives up FGs not TDs. Our defense yesterday did this for most of the game – special teams gave the Colts the ball on the 50 for their first TD (the second TD was the “breaking” of our D). Our offense should be good enough to score more than 20 points if our defense can keep teams under 20 and our special teams just plays fine (not even spectacular)….I too found it hard to watch so many easy completions against us, but I think this loss is all on the Offense IMO…

nmkinley

Winston was not the problem yesterday. The offence drove the ball every time they had it for the first half. From there, they just didn’t get the opportunities, as the def couldn’t get off the field. The first two drives of Q3 were ruined by a phantom penalty and an unavoidable sack. Can’t fault Winston for these. He is the reasons why this team has a chance of winning every week. He doesn’t play, act or sound like a rookie, so I am over the moon with the progress he has made in his rookie season. He can’t do it on his own though.